Mychal Denzel Smith

Mychal Denzel Smith is a blogger at TheNation.com and a Knobler Fellow at the Nation Institute. He is also a freelance writer and social commentator. His work on race, politics, social justice, pop culture, hip hop, mental health, feminism and black male identity has appeared in various publications, including The Guardian, Ebony, theGrio, the Root, Huffington Post and GOOD.

Articles

The End of Stop-and-Frisk as We Know It (Police and Law Enforcement, Profiling)

Mayor Bloomberg and Ray Kelly lost big: a federal court ruling and a new law ban the racial profiling that undergirds the discriminatory practice.

Mychal Denzel Smith

Our Lives on the Line (Social Justice, Race and Religion)

How long are we supposed to remain calm when the laws we are called on to respect are an open assault on our humanity?

Mychal Denzel Smith

It's Not the Bad Guys—It's the Guns (US Politics, Guns and Gun Control)

Let's face the truth: anyone with a gun can be a "bad guy." What we need is fewer guns, period.

Mychal Denzel Smith

No, Backing Marriage Equality Won't Cost Obama Support of Black Voters (Barack Obama, US Politics, Gender and Sexuality)

The math doesn’t add up. It shouldn't cost Obama votes—and it won’t.

Mychal Denzel Smith

Charges for Trayvon Martin's Killer Are No Guarantee of Justice (Racism and Discrimination, Trayvon Martin, Law)

Those new to the cause of defending black life will soon have to face the bleak truth black people have lived with for so long: we don’t often win.

Mychal Denzel Smith

Justice for Trayvon Martin (Trayvon Martin)

Florida’s “Stand Your Ground” law puts the threshold for self-defense so low that major questions in this case will likely go unanswered.

Mychal Denzel Smith

Blogs

When Black Kids Want to Learn and the World Tells Them 'No'

Whether black children value education or not isn’t the issue. It’s more important to ask why they grow up in a world that...

Mychal Denzel Smith

The GOP's Black Friends Need More Black Friends

Republicans may want to turn to an unlikely source for clues on how to sell conservatism to black voters.

Mychal Denzel Smith

Let's Call Racist School Closings What They Are: Racist

Avoiding calling racism for what it is only prolongs the problem.

Mychal Denzel Smith

Guns Are a Right, Yes—but Do They Have to Be?

The question we are avoiding: Is the right to bear arms worth all the death?

Mychal Denzel Smith

Assata Shakur Is Not a Terrorist

The former Black Panther has become the first woman placed on the FBI’s Most Wanted Terrorist list and reminds us that the struggle...

Mychal Denzel Smith

Lessons to Learn From Arizona's New Gun Laws

The state’s recent legislation turns its gun-buyback program into a recycling initiative and underscores the necessity for federal...

Mychal Denzel Smith

White People Have to Give Up Racism

It's the only real solution to deaths like those of Trayvon Martin and Rodgrio Diaz.

Mychal Denzel Smith

President Obama Should Go to Chicago. And Yemen. And Pakistan. And ...

The president should condemn violence at home, and hold himself accountable for violence abroad, as well.

Mychal Denzel Smith

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Mychal Denzel Smith | The Nation